As a licensed contractor and real estate agent, I can review your estimates, ask the questions you might not know to ask, and help you make an informed decision that balances cost with quality.

Trying to get a # from him about estimated remaining cost but got nothing.   

However, I still struggle to understand the art of estimating rehab costs. 

The condo I'm selling in CA could sell for approximately $600k, and I was thinking of rolling that into 2 condo/townhomes valued at about $250k each, then doing DST for the remaining around $100 for the 1031.

I own 20 acres of land valued at approximately $80,000, and I want to build two short-term rental (STR) units on it.For context, my family already owns two long-term rental (LTR) units in the same general area.

We got three estimates from masonry repair companies ranging from $7,500 (patch) to $35,000 ("do this repair now or you will need a major $80K repair").

I'm not sure I can copy and paste my Excel spreadsheet, so i will approximate the numbers here.Strategy:Take a Home Equity Loan (second) on our primary @ 5%.Pay off existing HELOC (variable, at 7.5% now), use remainder ($120k) to buy the land (plus 30k of our own cash).

It has a value of approximately $120k, to be confirmed with an appraiser yet. 

The land itself ran us about 3600/ acre, (480,000) and approximately another 20,000 in closing costs.

Hi Eric,Great question—estimating operating expenses can definitely be tricky, especially for items like maintenance, CapEx, and make-ready costs that vary widely between properties.